White campground employee arrested after chasing black couple off property with a gun: ‘You don’t belong here’

6/5/2019 UPDATE: Former Kampgrounds of America employee Ruby Howell was arrested on Tuesday for threatening a black couple with a gun, according to the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office in Starkville, Miss. The 70-year-old is reportedly charged with threatening exhibition of a weapon.

——————————————————————————————————

A national campgrounds company fired a property manager who chased a married couple with a gun because they accidentally trespassed.

On Sunday, Jessica, 26, and Franklin Richardson, 28, of Starkville, Mississippi visited Oktibbeha County Lake to enjoy a Memorial Day picnic with their dog.

The lake belongs to the Oktibbeha School District, but the Richardsons encroached onto private property owned by Starkville Kampgrounds of America (KOA), a camping site close to Mississippi State University, with a water park, RV and kayak rentals, and cabins.

Jessica explained that their picnic plans were stopped by property owner named Ruby Howell who wore a yellow KOA shirt. “Racism is alive and well!!” Jessica wrote on Facebook. “Today was a beautiful day so my husband (who's a vet), our 2-year-old dog, and myself, decided to Google a lake to visit and have a picnic. We found a lake located in starkville and decided to visit. Not five mins later a truck pulls up and a white lady screams at us, she then jumps out of her truck with a Gun. And proceeded to point it at the 3 of us, simply because we didn’t make reservations...”

Jessica said in her video, “This lady literally just pulled a gun because we’re out here and didn’t have reservations. A lake we didn’t know we had to have reservation for…all you had to do was tell us…we would have left. You didn’t have to pull a gun.”

“Well I’m just telling you, you need to leave,” said Howell, “this is under private ownership…you cannot be here. KOA won’t let you.”

Franklin, a military sergeant, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that he saw Howell driving toward them while he was unpacking the car. “I could see a gun in her hand at the wheel,” he says. “She stopped and pointed it at us.”

Jessica knows how to handle emergencies from her military husband. “I thought, ‘If something happens, I could at least record some of it,’” the biology student and nail technician, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “She said, ‘You don’t belong here, I’m the property manager.’”

The couple says the woman yelled, “Git! Git!” as if they were “stray dogs on her porch.” They rode by an office building and Franklin talked with a man outside who called himself Howell’s husband.

“He said we needed a reservation to be there, but then changed his story,” says Franklin. According to him, the woman drove up to the building and ordered Jessica to stay inside their car. The man, says Franklin, told his wife to “shut up.”

KOA confirmed the woman’s identity to Yahoo Lifestyle and a company representative sent a statement.

“Kampgrounds of America is aware of an incident that occurred Sunday, May 26th at the Starkville, Mississippi KOA campground,” it read. “The incident involved a campground employee and two persons seeking to access a lake via the campground’s private property. Unfortunately, the campground employee felt it necessary to display a firearm during the interaction with the two individuals and their dog.”

“Kampgrounds of America does not condone the use of a firearm in any manner on our properties or those owned and operated by our franchisees. The employee involved in the incident has been relieved of her duties at the Starkville KOA…”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• High school pulls 1,750 yearbooks because students flashed 'white power' symbol in photos

• Outrage as 3 white teens spotted wearing 'blackface masks' at Illinois gas station

• California family receives racist letter: 'Your interracial family is not welcome here'

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.